Netflix Reviews by Viewers

Alexander: The Ultimate Cut

If this was the “ULTIMATE” cut, perhaps it would have been wiser for Oliver Stone, the director of this 3 1/2 hour movie and Warner Brothers, to have been satisfied with an earlier cut. This one stunk.

Alexander III (or “The Great”), was leader of the Macedonian Empire which extended from present day Greece to Pakistan and was rivaled only by the Persian Empire to its east. The Roman Empire came along a little later.

During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, the Greek, and became Emperor at an early age when his father, Philip, died. He then set out to conquer the known world which he pretty much did. However, the writers and director of this movie couldn’t make up their minds how to tell the story in sequence. It was continuously jumping ahead “7 years” then back “20 years”, then forward again, back and forth making your head spin. They tried to explain this with intermittent sub-messaging and vocal background narrative, only confusing things more.

The movie dwelled heavily and graphically on Alexander’s homosexuality. Funny, I couldn’t find any real historian who mentioned it. Wikipedia didn’t either. Not sure it was even true. Alexander died at the early age of 32. Not in battle, but maybe from drinking too much bad wine.

The many battle scenes were well done and exciting. Especially the one where the Indian army attacked Alexander’s cavalry with elephants. Don’t see that often, but it seems to be historically true.